The family of Lilia “Esperanza” Aucapina, the Sagaponack woman whose body was found hanging from a tree near her home last month after she had been missing for more than six weeks, filed a formal request with the Southampton Town supervisor on Tuesday, asking that the investigation into her death be reopened and reassigned.

The letter asks Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst to allow the Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad open a completely new investigation. It came one week after a vigil was held outside Southampton Town Hall, where about 100 people gathered to demand that her death be investigated more thoroughly.

The five-page letter was sent on behalf of Ms. Aucapina’s family but was written by Foster Maer, the senior litigation counsel for LatinoJustice, a New York-based civil rights organization that has been investigating Ms. Aucapina’s case and how it was handled by the Town Police. Her death was ruled a suicide.

The letter claims that Town Police did not have “open minds” and “wrongfully imposed limits on the investigation into Ms. Aucapina’s disappearance.” It notes that Ms. Aucapina had recently obtained an order of protection against her estranged husband, Carlos Aucapina, and documented numerous instances of domestic violence he had committed against her.

The letter also states that the Town Police did not sufficiently consider that Ms. Aucapina’s death may have in fact been a criminal act, as the department did not contact trained homicide detectives. Furthermore, the investigation was limited only to “noncriminal explanations” even when Ms. Aucapina’s body was eventually found hanging from a tree in an area previously searched by police.

“Whatever their exact reasoning, the Town Police viewed the discovery of her body as confirmation that she had committed suicide and continued their refusal to expand the investigation or have trained homicide detectives take over,” the letter says.

LatinoJustice suggests that this brings into question the competence of the Town Police as well as the adequacy of the investigation, asserting that Ms. Aucapina was found hanging in “plain view in this lightly wooded area.”

According to the letter, because a hunter, and not the police, discovered Ms. Aucapina’s body, either her suicide was staged after the police search was conducted, or the police investigation was not thorough enough.

The letter additionally requests that Southampton Town examine how the police conducted their investigation, and specifically what steps the department took to determine that Ms. Aucapina’s death was a suicide. It mentions Gabriela Armijos, a Latina who went missing and was found dead last year in Springs, and notes that East Hampton Town Police quickly determined that she too had committed suicide.

“That both these cases involved the disappearance of Latinas suggests that race may have played a role in the gross mishandling of both investigations,” the letter states.

Council for Latino Justice? Why does this have to become about race? What's next a lawsuit? All agencies assisted in some shape or form and ample tax payer dollars were spent in the investigation. You make it seem like the police and town turned their back because she was Latino. The family needs to grieve and move on. Stop looking to point a finger or blame. What's next? You hand the investigation to the County and you don't like their answer and move on to handing it to the state? How about ...moreyou just call the feds in to handle it at this point? It seems like you will never accept the answer you do not want to hear nor will you be satisfied .

The victim's race had nothing to do with the investigation or lack of one. Despite her race she was able to access local law and garner Orders of Protection - right? Once the victim's abusive former spouse hired a lawyer who was a brilliant spin doctor & had him white-washed in the Press - the police had almost no recourse to act. People in the Latino community KNOW what happened without the police having to investigate a thing. Let them confess it to the police and not blame the police for ...morenot finding it out.

Please look at the much larger issue of illegal immigration. Exploitation of illegals to do back-breaking work for unreasonably low wages. Pushing local people right out of their employment who will not stand to be maltreated that way. The willingness of irresponsible yet moneyed people to allow immigrants be exploited instead of paying a fair wage to locals. Do they ask the companies they employ to do this work - the gardening, the cleaning, the cooking - are your workers legal? No - they do not ask those questions. The willingness of the middle-men and women who subcontract & hire illegal workers and aide in their exploitation.

What has come to light is that the East End has a very large new community of relocated people who arrived by circumventing the laws and who further circumvent any local laws - driving without a license and so on - & who feel they have the right to deal with their own social issues outside of local laws.

Then - when a cross-over occurs - when a woman is blatantly murdered - and perhaps more than one woman - THEN that community looks to the local law enforcers to help them. Too late for the victims. The Latino community has a hit man to take care of their non-compliant women. Let them find that murderer themselves and bring him to the police for justice. And prove what has been done. Too late to say - NOW the law needs to help us - even though we will not come forward to help during the investigation or speak to them due to language barriers, cultural issues, illegal status.

Once again - People in the Latino community KNOW what happened without the police having to investigate a thing. Let them confess it to the police and not blame the police for not finding it out.